North Jersey voters face minor poll glitches Election Day
Election officers and a warehouse crew are serving to ballot staff with small machine points and consumer errors at voting websites throughout Bergen County.
“No voters had been turned away…voters are nonetheless voting,” stated Debra Francica, superintendent of elections and commissioner of registration. “Voters ought to ask for assist in the event that they’re having hassle from ballot staff as a result of staff don’t wish to be intrusive.”
Margaret Frontera, Republican commissioner for the Bergen County Board of Elections, agreed. “The primary line of protection on the polls are the ballot staff, who’re skilled to name the superintendent’s workplace and their voting machine division to deal with any {hardware} points,” Frontera stated.
Some points stemmed from voters being unfamiliar with voting machines that had been changed in time for the first election this 12 months. In April, the Bergen County Board of County Commissioners accepted a $15 million bond ordinance to cowl the price of 1,200 ballot-marking machines and 650 tabulators that changed 30-year-old machines that exceeded their lifespans.
Printer error in Westwood
In Westwood, officers reported voters attempting to take away the ballots from the printer earlier than a inexperienced verify mark appeared on the display screen, which signifies your complete poll was completed printing.
“Some persons are touching the ballots earlier than they’re presupposed to, which jams the printer and smears the poll and the poll gained’t scan,” Francica stated. “It’s a giant poll and prints on each side. Some persons are getting anxious and pulling it out earlier than it’s completed printing the second aspect.”
“The machines are working fantastic. I feel the voters are simply not used to it,” Francica stated.
Ballots can solely be inserted as soon as
Republican Assemblyman Robert Auth tweeted out a Fb submit by a voter who acquired the message, “There’s already a vote recorded for this activation card. Please take away your activation card and notify a ballot employee for help.”
“The voter would solely obtain that message if the voter card was not encoded utterly by the ballot employee at voter check-in,” Francica stated.
Westwood Clerk Karen Hughes defined that the message doesn’t imply a voter has already voted, however that the cardboard has already been inserted right into a poll machine.
“In a nutshell, the playing cards are programmed with the voter’s poll and might solely be inserted one time,” Hughes stated. “As soon as it’s pulled out it’s cleared. If the identical voter tries to insert it once more it is not going to present the poll. The playing cards are reused again and again all day. If the cardboard reader doesn’t reprogram the cardboard with the poll appropriately, it is going to present that message when a voter inserts it.”
Hughes stated there was one other error when a ballot employee “inadvertently hit the audio verify field on the ballot pad when voters checked in, which coded the cardboard to launch the visually impaired function of the poll voting machine. All voters had been reprocessed to have the ability to vote with out the poll being learn to them.”
Minor points in River Vale, Paramus, Norwood, Oradell
Republican Sen. Holly Schepisi stated she acquired calls from constituents and officers in 4 different Bergen County cities experiencing issues on the polls, together with River Vale, Paramus, Norwood and Oradel.
Francica stated in River Vale, a poll marking gadget wasn’t working as a result of it wasn’t plugged in. Her workplace helped ballot staff arrange a poll marking gadget in Paramus, and despatched a technician to Norwood to verify on the batteries within the gadget. Her group delivered a lacking center privateness curtain to Oradell this morning, and walked ballot staff by means of fixing a paper jam at George Washington College in Ridgewood.
“If every little thing went down, if the facility went out, we now have emergency ballots preprinted in each location,” Francica stated. “No voter ought to ever be turned away.”
If you cannot wait, get a provisional poll
If a voter doesn’t have time to attend as staff resolve an issue, they need to ask for a provisional poll to fill out, or paper ballots which might be counted after the polls shut, Schepisi stated.
Voters with issues can name the election safety hotline run by the Attorneys’ Committee for Civil Rights at 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683) or the Division of Elections at 1-877-NJ-VOTER (1-877-658-6837).
Bergen County voters may also watch a video in English, Spanish, or Korean about how you can use the brand new machines right here.